Author: Sanjay K. Jha
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: September 22, 2008
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com//1080922/jsp/nation/story_9867380.jsp
The BJP plans to highlight the "vindictive"
Centre's double standards and "dirty game" for its warning to party-ruled
Orissa and Karnataka under Article 355.
Although government sources said the Prime
Minister pulled up the two states for attacks on Christians to send a positive
signal to the international community before his US visit, the BJP is convinced
the step was born out of concerns about Muslim votes.
"This is the result of compensatory pressure," party spokesperson
Ravi Shankar Prasad said today.
"Top UPA leaders like Mulayam Singh and
cabinet ministers Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan were getting cornered as
facts about Simi came before the nation," Prasad said.
Their parties, Prasad added, "support"
the banned group - the Students' Islamic Movement of India - and wanted to
use some "diversionary" tactic. "(So) they forced the Prime
Minister to grant this compensation."
Prasad said the step to invoke Article 355
was unjustified as both Karnataka and Orissa were doing their best to check
the violence.
The BJP leader said the "vacillating"
character of the Manmohan Singh regime changed suddenly as it acted with alacrity
against Sangh parivar outfits only because of narrow political designs.
